A look into the crystal ball
Hand and map reading, predicting the future or simply asking for advice, it's all the most normal thing in the world in the land of smiles.
In many places there is someone who is credited with a special gift to predict the future or to convince you that everything will be fine.
A special experience
By chance I end up at a few small houses situated in the middle of the fields for which even the name hamlet is too ambitious. In one of the meager houses resides a lady who has acquired name and fame far and wide for her special gift to provide clarity in thorny matters. For only twenty baht you can go to her for advice and advice, after which you can return home relieved.
Are women that gullible?
On a wooden platform in front of her simple wooden house, the lady in question is sitting on the floor behind a low table. A silver-coloured bowl, a notebook and next to it a number of flowers, each wrapped in a banana leaf, form the decor on the table. More than twenty people are waiting around the house, all women. The atmosphere is relaxed, people laugh, chat along and you can wonder which of them really has a problem, that's how friendly it is.
The time per 'consultation' is approximately ten minutes and you can go there every day. Not a single man is present, whereby you can ask whether they are less gullible, have no problems or whether a kind of cock behavior and pride dominate the male ego.
The ceremony
When it is your turn, take a seat in front of the clairvoyant lady, then place a twenty baht bill on the dish and one of the flowers wrapped in banana leaves on top. With folded hands you lift the bowl, close your eyes and send a short prayer to heaven. Then the counselor performs the same ritual.
This is followed by an interview between the two persons, during which the necessary notes are made in the notebook. It is very casual and sometimes even the ladies sitting around interfere in the conversation between clairvoyant and counselor. The notes made are then carefully studied and the symbols placed with them determine the outcome of the question. At the end of the conversation, no one looks sad and everyone can go home satisfied. For twenty bath completely reassured or a bright future ahead, that can be called a bargain.
Don't try to understand it, because it won't work anyway. When I once told someone that we dye eggs at Easter and tried to explain the 'egg tap', the question followed: “For what you do that?”